[Clinty] So you do drag, huh? That’s cute: a straight dude who cross-dresses. Very James Franco-for-Candy-Magazine.

[N△tty] I’m comfortable with the term drag because it was one of the earliest terms used to describe “Screw” music.

Oh, I’ve totally screwed to music. “The Fudge Punch” by Wiseblood gives some serious soundtrack, if you know what I mean. Got any faves that rev you up for a sesh of runp-wranglin’, ol’ nasty Nattymaster?

I really consider my only influences the dub pioneers: Robert Earl Davis (DJ Screw), and probably The Early Sheffield [ Cabaret Voltaire, The Future, etc. ] I’ve been a fan of Screw music since about 1998. Incidentally, I also listen to a lot of darker music; so of course when artists started blending the two I got very excited—especially since I’d been leaning in that direction already, [experimenting with drag remixes].

Now, hold on just a durn minute. Dark music? You mean that Kiss-The-Goat kindly stuff them anhk-wearin’ P.I.B.s listen to?

Geraldo Riviera did a special about that whole…”scene”…a bunch a years ago. Yeah, I know me a thing or two about “dark music.” Sure as shit, I do!

Basically, during the 90s, I toyed with the concept of being a working DJ. I was writing for the [L.A.] New Times and doing occasional dj gigs: mainly art openings and loft parties. These led to a short residence at The Parlour [club]. Back then — and still on my blog — I fuse[d] a number of sounds: disco, house, minimal synth, electro…all in the style of Ron Hardy and Larry Levan, who are still my mentors as a DJ [in addition to] the Cosmic DJs (Danielle Baladelli and Beppe Loda), who I didn’t find out about [till] later. Oh—and as far as live DJs, I was really influenced by the Wicked crew out of San Francisco, and the Idjut Boys and Harvey.

[At any rate], this sound remains intact in my blog mixes. As a producer of tracks, I am really trying to do something more. I try not to get too high concept about it, but there’s definitely a ‘MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE’ component to my music.

All-caps, huh? O I C. Hearkens back to the early ‘Aughts when the phrase MASHUP was being spread around as insistent & insidious(ly) as a scabies outbreak from a strip-club’s dressing room. Some remixes are just remixes, you know — but when they’re really remixed, they get an extended title: complete with parentheses and clever little phrases signified by caps-lock. The most SRS of BSNS, maing.

Never mind my obnoxious enthusiasm over A + D (ditto, their rump-shakin’, world obliteratin’, full-on overtakin’-the-gayme endeavor: Club Bootie), Girl Talk, & D.J. Raw-burt; matter of fact, consider this a rare instance in which I acknowledge —

[interrupts] I pretty much despire the term or concept of mash-up.

Oh, c’mon Natty! Sure, the term remains so frickin’ mashed to this day that more often than not, it’s denied a hyphen. But insofar as the act thereof? When it’s done well, it’s not just brilliant; shit’s incandescent. Proof/pudding: Hawkins‘ xXx.

DJs have been blending and fusing styles from day one. The [categories] “disco” or “house,” for example, were really blanket terms used to describe the music played in clubs.

Or not played. Someone much witter than I am described Witch House as “the genre for people who don’t leave theirs.” Unfortunately, I’m not even sharp enough to recall whom it was, nor where I read it. All the same —

Ron Hardy played a fusion of really gay disco, italo disco and new wave/synth…and later included minimal beat tracks created by his friends and club-goers.

‘Really gay’? How do people respond to that? I mean, ‘some of my best friends are‘ queers & flamboya feministing fagocytronics & everything — but HAPPY?! That’s a ‘lifestyle choice’ I’m just not sure I can accept…

Well, I’ve been receiving really encouraging emails all along from artists. Gyratory System and Yellow Ostrich had contacted me about the ‘post production’ I did over their tracks, but my main introduction to the drag community actually was by way of a disagreement I had with GuMMy†Be▲R!